Finance CV Template

Profile

You might want to give an overview of yourself in a short concise paragraph. Highlight and summarise your BEST skills and experience; no need to list achievements and responsibilities as this is contained in a separate area below. Try and make yourself sound different whilst still remaining professional; you need to sell yourself to a potential employer/recruiter and tailor it to the role.

Education/Professional Qualifications

Mention the examining body, qualification type, the date, and finally if passed first time.

Technical Skills

Accounting technical skills are the core of your attributes, but with I.T becoming a more and more important part of finance you will need to highlight any packages used, implementation projects, or working with other IT systems in partnership with your role (e.g. Procurement, HR, Marketing etc.). I would suggest you highlight the level of your skills within I.T and make it clear to any potential employer/recruiter. Give any skills in non-finance areas (e.g. HR) as in some roles the more varied your experience, the more valuable you are to an employer/recruiter.

Preferred Location

Be clear with the geographical locations you are prepared to work. You might want to explain why you can work in multiple locations; for example, having access to a second home near the job location. For temporary/interim work it is normal for candidates to be flexible on location; but for permanent only candidates I would suggest being clear/give reasoning on any location flexibility outside your home location. If you will be travelling in excess of 1 ½ hours to get to work I think some employers/recruiters will question if that is sustainable for a permanent role; simply with the nature of a senior finance role rarely being a 9-5 occupation.

Financial Expectation

Be realistic. Consider carefully what you are valued at and take the recommendation of a recruitment consultant/agency you can trust, as this is what any employer will naturally presume is your salary expectation. Consider your market value carefully. You will see all salary surveys will or should have a large range next to every job title, this is indicative of the fact that many companies have salaries that vary against one job title; this is normally due to the detail, responsibility and scope/challenge of the role. It’s not essential to contain your salary expectations, but I would advise to do this to potentially avoid wasting all parties time. The best way to cover this is arguably to give a mid to top range expectation e.g. £85-90k; it is essential you are realistic with what you are currently being paid and your market value.

Availability

Your notice period; be clear and realistic.

Career History

Date: Simply give dates and explain for any gaps in the CV.

Employer: Give the name and location, maybe highlight their HQ and potentially company T/O. If you want this to remain confidential simply give a careful description on the above; not enough to give the name away though.

Business Sector: Industry sector

Position: Job title and who you report into, e.g. MD or FD

Responsibilities:

Number of direct reports, finance areas responsible for/involved in, various areas of reporting, examples of business partnering (working with other areas of the business). Highlight if applicable your commercial skills (involved in company acquisitions etc), involvement in presenting to the board/attending board meetings and key responsibilities. Detail and specifics are needed in the core elements of your responsibilities. For example, if you spend 50% of your time in your role “business partnering with internal stakeholders”, give some detail/examples. Try and keep this punchy, leave nothing to the imagination of a recruiter/employer as nobody should be left to presume if you have experience in any given area.

Achievements:

Cost savings

Successful projects

Promotions, awards

Examples of systems implementation

Any technology achievements

And examples of internal or external business partnering

Reason for leaving: Be short and concise and never contain anything negative. You can discuss the reason for leaving in more detail at the interview.